May 



1907] 



NATURE 



75 



discoveries made in the earlier part of the century, 

 merely sketching their later developments. We do 

 not blame the author for omitting many discoveries 

 of importance, but it is a great pity that he did not 

 realise that the present selection gives a somewhat 

 one-sided view of scientific aims and methods. 



Having said so much about a weak point in the 

 book, it would be unfair not to dwell on several 

 useful features. The specialist working in one branch 

 of science is very apt to forget what he ever learnt 

 about other directions of scientific progress. In 

 these days, over-specialisation and over-elaboration 

 are being carried to greater excess every year. Even 

 the subdivision of the Royal Society's Proceedings 

 into two series has completely destroyed their former 

 all-round character. .\ book like the present, taken 

 up and read in a leisure hour, will recall to the 

 specialist many interesting points in the historv of 

 different branches of science of which he would other- 

 wise never think. If there is one class of specialist 

 who is more likely than others to benefit by reading 

 the book, that is the mathematician himself, and 

 next to him, possibly, the physicist. These in par- 

 ticular will be brought into contact with ideas quite 

 different from those with which they are commonly 

 associated, and it may be hoped that the mathe- 

 matician will learn a lesson, and be less prone to 

 hide his light under a bushel, when he finds how 

 his genius is unappreciated by the writers of popular 

 treatises. G. H. Bry.4N. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN LEICESTER. 

 Glimpses of Ancient Leicester in Six Periods. By 

 Mrs. T. Fielding Johnson. Second edition, with 

 supplementary notes. Pp. xv-l-439. (Leicester: 

 Clarke and Satchell ; London : Simpkin, Marshall 

 and Co., Ltd., 1906.) 



THIS book was- first published in 1S92 as a 

 " History of Leicester from the Earliest Times 

 to the End of the Eighteenth Century." The present 

 edition has been enlarged considerably by a supple- 

 ment, in which more recent developments have been 

 dealt with. The author belongs to a Leicester family 

 which has taken a leading part in the public life of 

 the town for several generations. Local histories 

 are wont to be rather dull, but in this case, thanks 

 to a lucid and lively style, the writer has succeeded 

 in producing a volume of more than usual attrac- 

 tion for the general reader. 



Leicester appears to have been an important 

 Roman settlement, of which the chief remains arc 

 a part of the old rampart, now called the " Jewry 

 Wall"; some fine examples of tesselated pavements: 

 and a milestone with an inscription to the Emperor 

 Hadrian, said to be the oldest stone inscription in 

 Britain. During Saxon times the Church of St. 

 Nicholas was built on the site of a Roman temple. 

 This church " still includes in the north wall of it? 

 nave portions of the identical walls of the original 

 .Saxon church, showing a quantitv of material taken 

 from the Jewry Wall and other ruined Roman build- 

 ings near the spot." "Lender the Xornian anc 

 Plantagcnet kings, Leicester reached its highest poini 

 NO. i960, VOL. 76] 



of importance as a medijfival borough," under its 

 greatest earl, Simon de Montfort. Several buildings 

 of this period are in existence ; amongst them may 

 be mentioned the Newark Gateway and the Old 

 Town Hall. Memorials of the sixteenth century may 

 still be seen in the Abbey and the Queen Elizabeth 

 Grammar School. 



The supplement gives an interesting account of the 

 development of the place from a market town with 

 a population of 17,000 at the end of the eighteenth 

 century into an industrial centre of nearly a quarter 

 of a million people. 



In this connection reference should be made to the 

 excellent description of the rise and progress of the 

 present important knitting and hosiery trade. A 

 great impulse was given to the prosperity of the 

 town by the opening of the Leicester and Swanning- 

 ton Railway. This was the second railwav in the 

 country, and was built by George Stephenson in 1832. 

 Some of the original rails and other specimens of 

 early railway work are preserved in the town 

 museum. 



This useful institution owes its origin to the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, through which it 

 gained the nucleus of its present valuable collection. 

 The scientific activity of the town has always centred 

 round this society, which was founded in 1835. 



The attention of the reader of Mrs. Fielding 

 Johnson's book will be attracted to the names of 

 several of her townsmen who have attained distinc- 

 tion in scientific pursuits, amongst whom may be 

 mentioned Russel Wallace, the naturalist Bates, and 

 another, not so well known, Mr. Ludlam, who 

 assisted Dollond in the production of achromatic 

 lenses for his telescopes. 



The history of the educational institutions of the 

 town receives adequate treatment. Secondary educa- 

 tion is mainly in the hands of the Wyggeston and 

 Queen Elizabeth Grammar Schools, and .Mderman 

 Newton's School, the latter an eighteenth-century 

 foundation. During last century a working men's 

 college and a mechanics' institute were started. The 

 former docs useful work still, whilst the latter has 

 developed into a fine technical school. 



A special interest attaches to the new edition of 

 this attractive work in view of the forthcoming visit 

 of the British .Association to Leicester, and intending 

 visitors would find in it a pleasanter account of their 

 place of meeting than the pages of an ordinary 

 guide-book can afford. The book is admirably illus- 

 trated, and is provided with an index. R. E. T. 



A NEW LIFE OF HUXLEY. 

 Thomas H. Huxley. By J. R. Ainsworth Davis. 

 (English Men of Science Series.) Pp. xi + 288. 

 (London : J. M. Dent and Co., 1907.) Price 2S. 6d. 

 net. 



MR. D.WTS has produced in small compass an 

 account of the life and work of Huxley that is 

 at once readable and stimulating. It was inevitable 

 that he should draw largely upon Mr. Leonard 

 Huxlcv's biography of his illustrious father, but the 

 materials have been skilfully employed, and the book 



